I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

Who said it: Amy Goodman? Howard Zinn? Noam Chomsky? John Edwards?

Nope: It was Abraham Lincoln, 144 years ago, in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins.

h/t: Crisis Papers

Cambridge just elected its second consecutive black, openly gay mayor! Denise Simmons succeeds Ken Reeves.

Sure wish I lived in Cambridge… *sigh*

A hard-working guy at the Voice of America’s Africa service has started a blog called “African Music Treasures” that publishes unreleased recordings of African music from the Voice of America archives.  Check it out!

See also: Voodoo Funk, Calabash Music, and Matsuli Music

R. J. Hillhouse, Ph.D., runs a great blog called “The Spy Who Billed Me.” She offers up this satirical take on the Twelve Days of Christmas. Excerpt:

Day Two. Two turtle doves. At the NSA, SAIC contractors discover a correlation between “partridge in a pear tree” and “two turtle doves.” The NSA notifies the CIA. CIA analysts who are new to the job due to high Agency turnover do not recognize the turtle-dove/partridge-in-a-pear-tree pattern, but speculate that the combination of phrases indicates that a terrorist plan may have gone operational. The White House is briefed.

True, the season has passed, but it’s still a must-read.

Republican Presidential “front-runner” Mike Huckabee in Michigan on Monday: 

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do – to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.

 Source: Raw Story

Chinese poet Li Po (701-706) is regarded as one of the two greatest poets in China’s literary history. He was well known for his love of liquor and often spouted his greatest poems while drunk.

One night, Li Po fell from his boat and drowned in the Yangtze River while trying to embrace the reflection of the moon in the water.

This looks pretty fun! Good for your next clever hoax or getting access to restricted places.

Check out the AfroFunk Forum blog for “Daily news, music reviews and commentary on Afrobeat and related music from Africa, The Caribbean and The Americas.”

Wandering around the blogs, I came across this post by Undercover Black Man (a.k.a. television writer David Mills). He details an upcoming episode of the Boondocks, which rips into Black Entertainment Television (BET):It’s especially timely, given that BET founder Robert Johnson has waded into the Clinton/Obama dustup this week, coming down squarely (and nastily) on the side of Hillary… to the chagrin of many.

One of the best font archives I’ve found.